A FLAG FOR A REAL STATUS OF FULL AUTONOMY FOR TIBET

In 1949, Tibet, an independent country whose history stretches back thousands of years, was invaded by the armed forces of the People's Republic of China. The subsequent occupation was marked by unheard-of ferocity, consisting of massacres, torture, mass imprisonment and sterilisation, obligatory abortion, and the systematic destruction of the cultural, religious and environmental heritage.

After over 40 years of determined resistance on the part of the Tibetans and their refusal to submit, during the 1980s, the Chinese authorities drew up and implemented a new type of "final solution", a full-fledged "ethnic cleansing" carried out through the mass transfer of Chinese nationals to Tibet. Over the last 50 year, from a few hundreds in the 1940s, the number of Chinese residents has grown to the present total of over 7 millions. The Tibetans are now a minority in their own country. The aim of the occupying power is to reach a total of 40 million Chinese nationals in Tibet by the year 2020. At that point the Tibetans, their language, culture, religion, customs as well as traditions will have been consigned to the history-books.

Time is running out, but we must stop this silent genocide. We must save Tibet, the Tibetan people and its historical and cultural treasures, which they have created over the years, both for themselves and for the rest of humanity.

We must stop the last existing dictatorial empire in its murderous, destructive intents. Through this great struggle for freedom, we must avert the current transformation of the People's Republic of China from a Communist regime into a nationalist-communist regime.

Beginning with the freedom and liberation of Tibet, we must create the premises for the liberation and freedom of 1.3 billion Chinese, for the introduction of democracy and the of the Rule of Law in China.

As violence prevails over dialogue time and again, we must take the nonviolent resistance of the Tibetan people and of the Dalai Lama as an example for the whole of humanity.

Without wasting a single minute, the citizens of the free world and their elected representatives must take action. Millions of men and women must join together under the banner of nonviolence in a concrete, active initiative to restore freedom in Tibet, and for the prompt initiation of negotiations under the aegis of the Secretary General of the United Nations between the Beijing authorities and the Tibetan government in exile on a new statute of full autonomy for Tibet regarding its political, economic, social and cultural life, with the sole exception of foreign and defence policy.

To mark our concrete support for this struggle for democracy, peace and freedom, we, the undersigned Mayors of cities, towns and villages will display the Tibetan flag in our town-halls until the Beijing authorities and the Tibetan government in exile will reach an agreement on a new status of full autonomy for Tibet. We call on our respective Parliaments and Governments to support the position of the European Parliament and to recognise the Tibetan government in exile if the new status of full autonomy will not be ratified and implemented within the next three years.